Excerpts from James R. Mellow's Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times

Hawthorne biographer James R. Mellow examines the internal evidence for the sexual
tension between Coverdale and Hollingsworth in The Blithedale Romance as
a possible parallel for elements in the personal relationship between Hawthorne
and Melville.

"But however important the relationship between the sexes is to the novel,
the critical confrontation in The Blithedale Romance is between two
men, Coverdale and Hollingsworth, and it, too, has sexual implications. .
. . 'There is not the man in this wide world whom I can love as I could you,'
Hollingsworth seductively tells Coverdale. 'Do not forsake me!' The weight
of the announcement, led up to by an intimate exchange between the two men,
hints at something more than an easy euphemism. The subtle implication is
that Hollingsworth is quite prepared to use his personal charisma as a weapon
in dealing with both sexes. Coverdale concedes that if, at that moment, he
had merely touched Hollingsworth's extended hand, he would have been so overpowered
by Holllingsworth's 'magnetism' that he would never have resisted" (399).

Mellow clarifies that Melville's likely inspiration for Hawthorne's Hollingsworth
raises more questions about the authors' relationship.

"But there was a recent relationship in Hawthorne's life with a man of 'about
thirty years old' that could have provided the deeper psychological motivation
for the character of Hollingsworth. Had Hawthorne --consicously or unconsciously
--sensed the sexual urgency behind Melville's courtship? Had he sensed, as
well, a certain responsiveness in his own attitude? Some recent relationship,
it would seem, had allowed him to plumb the relationship between Hollingsworth
and Coverdale, making it more than a confrontation of types, a war of social
ideologies" (400).(From Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times, by James
R. Mellow. Copyright (c) 1980 by James R. Mellow. Reprinted by permission
of Georges Borchardt, Inc, for the Estate of James R. Mellow.)